Short answer: an estate or letting agent website in England should show your company's registered details, and if you let property, your full fee list with VAT included, the name of your redress scheme and your client money protection scheme, and your CMP certificate. Rental listings need a fixed rent with no invitation to bid. Sales and rental listings both need the facts a buyer or tenant would reasonably expect to see before they book a viewing.
Most of these rules have been around for years, but 2025 and 2026 changed several of them. Below is what each rule means on a real agency website, followed by a checklist you can hand to whoever manages your site. It is general information, not legal advice. For your own situation, check the official sources linked here or ask Propertymark, your redress scheme or your local Trading Standards.
Why the website side gets missed
Compliance usually gets checked in the office: the branch window, the terms of business, the tenancy paperwork. The website is often built once by a supplier, and nobody checks it again until something goes wrong.
That gap can be costly. Bristol's page for the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team says a missing fee list or scheme statement can bring a penalty of up to £5,000 per breach. Property Industry Eye reported a £5,000 penalty notice given to an agent whose CMP certificate was missing from its website, even though the agent was a member of a valid scheme.
Your website is also part of how vendors judge you. In a GetAgent survey of recent UK sellers published in October 2026, 81% said an agency looked more professional when its valuation report, website, marketing and communications all carried the same branding. A site with out-of-date fees or a broken scheme logo does not help that impression.
1. Company details on every page
If your agency is a limited company, the Companies (Trading Disclosures) Regulations 2008 require your website to show your registered name, your registered number, the part of the UK where the company is registered and your registered office address.
The simplest place for these is the site footer, so they appear on every page. Copy them exactly from Companies House. Property Industry Eye's article quotes a compliance officer at The Guild of Property Professionals pointing out that details such as "Ltd" versus "Limited" should match the register. If you trade under a brand that differs from the company name, show both.
2. Letting fees, redress and client money protection
This is the area with the clearest written rules. Business Companion's guide for letting agents, reviewed in May 2026 for the changes that came into force on 1 May, sets out what an agent in England must publish on its own website:
- A list of every fee charged to landlords, and any permitted payments a tenant may be asked for
- For each fee, a description of what it covers, whether it applies to the property or to each tenant, and the total including all taxes
- How a fee is worked out, where the amount cannot be known in advance
- A statement that you belong to a redress scheme, with the scheme's name
- Where you hold client money, a statement naming your client money protection scheme, plus your CMP certificate
For portals, the same guide says you either list the fees on the portal or link to the fees section of your own site. That link only works if your fees page has a stable address that does not change when someone edits the menu.
For example, a fee line written this way is clear: "Tenancy renewal for landlords: £180 including VAT, per property." A line such as "Admin fees may apply" fails on description, scope and amount all at once.
3. Rental listings after 1 May 2026
The Renters' Rights Act changes in England affect the wording on every rental listing page. GOV.UK's rental bidding guidance says the advertised rent must be a specific amount, not a range. Agents cannot ask for, encourage or accept offers above it, or tell someone about other offers to push the price up. The guidance counts online adverts, social media posts and messages as written adverts. A first breach can bring a fine of up to £7,000.
SpareRoom's summary of advertising duties adds wording to drop from templates: fixed-term language (tenancies are now periodic), blanket "No DSS" or "no children" lines, and flat "no pets" statements without a reason.
On a website, these problems are often in the template rather than the listing text. Check for:
- A "Price on application" or "Offers invited" label that the listing software adds automatically
- A rent field that allows a range or a "from" value
- Old filters or tick boxes such as "DSS accepted" or "Students only"
- Stock footer text that mentions six or twelve month fixed terms
- Enquiry forms that ask applicants what rent they would offer
4. Sales listings and material information
For years the National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team published lists of material information in three parts. Propertymark reports that this guidance was withdrawn when the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act took effect on 6 April 2025. The duty did not go away. Under the new Act, leaving out material information is an unfair commercial practice in itself, the full price including mandatory charges must be shown upfront, and the Competition and Markets Authority can fine businesses directly.
No sector list has replaced the old one yet. Letting Agent Today reported in February 2026 that the government is consulting on new rules. Until they arrive, the safest approach is to keep showing what the old Part A covered and what buyers already expect. The 2023 Property Industry Eye article lists price, tenure and council tax band on each listing, plus the current EPC rating.
For leasehold flats, think about ground rent, service charge and the lease length remaining. If your listing feed has no fields for these, the website cannot show them. Fixing the feed fields usually helps more than editing listings one by one.
5. Valuation forms and follow-up emails
The valuation request form is the page that turns a website visit into a vendor lead. The GetAgent survey found 86% of sellers saw the valuation appointment as an important factor when picking an agent, and 51% expected the valuation report within 24 hours. So the form needs to work properly, and someone needs to answer it fast.
It also needs to handle consent properly. The ICO's guidance on email marketing says a person who asks for a quote can count as being in negotiations, which may let you send them marketing about your own similar services under the soft opt-in. You must offer a simple way to opt out when you collect their details and in every later message. Pre-ticked boxes, silence and inactivity never count as consent. A practical form has an unticked box such as "Don't send me market updates", a link to your privacy policy, and nothing pre-selected.
If your valuation page also needs work on what it promises and how it converts, our post on Victoria's Property Price Statement covers appraisal page wording that avoids promising a top price.
Wales and Scotland
The fee and bidding guidance above is for England. The Guild's compliance officer, quoted in the 2023 Property Industry Eye article, noted that letting agents in Wales should show the Rent Smart Wales logo, and agents in Scotland their Letting Agent Registration number. SpareRoom says the Welsh discrimination measures were expected from 1 June 2026. If you work across nations, check each one's own rules and do not assume the English pages cover you.
The website compliance checklist
| What to check | Where it goes | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Registered company name, number, place of registration, registered office | Footer, every page | All limited companies |
| Full fee list, VAT included, per tenant or per property | Fees page with a stable address, linked from every rental listing | Letting agents (England) |
| Redress scheme named, logo linked to the scheme's site | Fees page and footer | Sales and letting agents |
| CMP scheme named, current certificate published | Fees page | Agents holding client money (England) |
| Single fixed rent, no "offers" or ranges | Rental listing template | Lettings (England) |
| No "No DSS", "no children", blanket "no pets" or fixed-term wording | Listing templates, filters, footers | Lettings (England) |
| Price, tenure, council tax band, EPC on each sales listing | Listing feed fields and template | Sales listings |
| Unticked marketing opt-out and privacy link on forms | Valuation and contact forms | All agents |
| Complaints procedure available online | Footer or About page | All agents |
| Rent Smart Wales logo or Scottish registration number | Footer | Letting agents in Wales or Scotland |
How to keep it right
The Guild's compliance officer recommends reviewing the website at least once a year. Three habits make that review short:
- Put legal details in the template (footer, fees page, listing layout), not in individual pages, so one change updates the whole site
- Pull fees and scheme names from one place, so the website, portals and branch window never disagree
- After any software update or new portal feed, open three live listings on a phone and check the rent, fees link and material facts are still there
If you are planning a new site anyway, ask your developer to build these as fields and settings from the start. Our notes on choosing a web design agency include the questions worth asking before you sign.
Want a second pair of eyes?
If you are not sure whether your agency website covers all of this, we can go through a few live pages with you. See how we work with agencies on our real estate page and our website development service. Every project is planned and quoted after a short call. Book a free 15-minute call when it suits you.